South Health District’s Office of Emergency Preparedness will hold a Strategic National Stockpile Summit on March 20 from 10am – 2pm at the Rainwater Conference Center in Valdosta. During this year’s summit, local businesses and organizations will learn about the Strategic National Stockpile program, how to become a local closed point-of-dispensing partner, the State Emergency Registry of Volunteers, and how these can be implemented to help the community during a large-scale public health emergency.

“The goal of the summit is to introduce community members to the steps they can take now to prepare for these types of events” says Karen Craft, South Health District emergency preparedness director. “If there was a large-scale event requiring deployment of medication from the Stockpile, the more businesses and people identified to assist, the better prepared we will be to provide medication in time for them to be effective.”

Private businesses or organizations, churches, healthcare facilities, schools, pharmacies and local governments are all ideal closed POD partner candidates. Not only is it beneficial to the community to have these partnerships in place to ease the burden off public points-of-dispensing, but there are also benefits for Closed POD partners. These benefits may include: ease of access to the medication, quicker dispensing to employees and their families ensuring they are protected, and allowing for continuity of operations.

Registration for the SNS Summit is open. For more information or to register visit, www.southhealthdistrict.com/snssummit2018 or call 229-253-0882.